Pavel Popovich, 79, a Pioneer in Space for the Soviet Union, Dies

MOSCOW (Agence France-Presse) — Pavel Popovich, the fourth Soviet man to go to space, died Wednesday in Crimea. He was 79.

His death, at a sanitarium, was announced by the head of the federation of astronauts, Vladimir Kovalenok. Itar-Tass quoted sources as saying that Mr. Popovich died of a stroke. He was five days short of his 80th birthday.

Mr. Popovich is best known for piloting the Vostok 4, which in August 1962 was one of the first two manned satellites to orbit the earth at the same time, a trip that made him the sixth person in orbit.

The other spacecraft orbiting at that time, Vostok 3, was piloted by Andrian Nikolayev, who died in 2004. Mr. Popovich also took part in a longer 15-day mission as commander of the Soyuz 14 spacecraft in July 1974.

Pavel Romanovich Popovich, born in 1929 in the Kiev region of what is now Ukraine, was part of a pioneering team trained to pilot the Vostok craft, the first manned vehicles the Soviets sent into space.

Mr. Popovich always described himself as the first Ukrainian to go to space.

He was the eighth man in space but the sixth man to go into orbit, which the first two manned United States spaceflights did not achieve.

Mr. Popovich won two Hero of the Soviet Union awards, his country’s highest honor.

His death came the same day as the launching of a Russian astronaut, an American astronaut and a Canadian space tourist on a Soyuz rocket bound for the International Space Station.

A version of this article appears in print on October 1, 2009, on Page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: Pavel Popovich, 79, a Pioneer In Space for the Soviet Union. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe